By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet
For the first time in my life I gave up control of my kitchen. I hired someone else to do the cooking.
You can imagine how insane even typing that seems to me. When people come to my house they fully expect me to do the cooking. I’m a food writer. Of course I do my own cooking. The word catering doesn’t even fit in my vocabulary. But this time I made an exception and fit the term personal chef into my life and into my kitchen.
The occasion was a gathering of my siblings and their spouses. We all decided it was time to get together and even though not all could make the date, a significant number did, and it was time to spend some quality time together.
My family members are all good cooks. We could have joined up and made dinner together. That would have not been a problem. What happened is I volunteered to coordinate this gathering and I wanted it to be something different. We have gathered lots of times to cook. Many of those times were when my family came to help me prepare for large parties. Instead, I wanted the day to be filled with other activities we could do together and not have to set aside time for cooking.
I gave everyone a list of several things that were going on in Chicago on that bright, crisp fall day. They could choose what they wanted to do. When you have a big family such as ours I don’t expect everyone to like the same things or want to do the same things. Turns out pretty much everybody decided to take the water taxi down the Chicago river and go visit Chinatown. The water taxi is a great way to get a new perspective of the city and a unique view of the architecture. I love the water taxi. Our Chinatown is quite sizable and there’s tons of shopping and great food. Now, this was something different.
Turns out I was the only one who could not go to Chinatown. I had to be back in time to let the chef in the house so I decided to drop them all off and go home. I also was not in all the great a mood because Titi had just died a couple of days before so having some alone time was good for me.
Chef Josh is the guy I contracted with to put on our dinner. I met Chef Josh because he had been hired by a couple of our Plan Z dieters. They wanted someone to cook for them while they were on the diet. Chef Josh had to get up to speed on how the diet works and what the restrictions/structure are so he could properly cook for them. Since we both live in the same city it seemed only logical that we meet. So we did.
I liked Chef Josh. He’s building a unique business of his own and I decided I wanted to help him. He’s young and enthusiastic. What’s not to love? But I also wanted to test out his skills so I could be in a better position to recommend him if the opportunity arose, so I decided the way to do that would be to hire him.
Chef Josh and I discussed what style of dinner I wanted. I wanted to have the dinner conform to the ZReboot stage of Plan Z by Zola. I wanted a creative menu but not too far out on the edge. I knew we could have a fabulous meal and still be eating ‘diet food’. This was not because I feel my family needs a diet. It was really for me to be able to see if Chef Josh could be creative and execute a meal that followed the protocol. And I still wanted him to have fun and use his creativity.
Chef Josh stepped up to the challenge and I have to say he passed the “test” with flying colors! Each couple chipped in to pay for their dinner and this is the three course meal Chef Josh orchestrated.
It was great to see someone else spread plates all across our counter and set about plating three teeny appetizers. Each tidbit was better than the last! I heard moaning coming from my family members. Lots of cheering and laughter. The entrée was delightful and the desserts devine. Everyone graduated in the Clean Plate Club. A few might have been tempted to lick their plates had they not been successful in getting every last morsel on their forks.
The dinner was a big success. And I’ll proudly recommend Chef Josh to others in the Chicago area who want someone else to do their cooking while they are on Plan Z. So many tell me Plan Z doesn’t taste like a diet. And Josh surely proved that with his delivery on a magnificent dinner.
Chef Josh did such a great job, in fact, that I asked him to contribute a couple of his recipes. I’m sharing those with you today. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family did. I also want to invite you to check out Josh’s website and Facebook page. If you click on the tumblr.com link below you can see Chef Josh working in my kitchen. Not all of his recipes in his various sites are Plan Z “friendly” because he does all kinds of cooking but each of them are beautiful to see. I wish Chef Josh much success.
http://www.facebook.com/chefjoshkatt
http://www.twitter.com/chefjoshkatt
http://chefjoshkatt.tumblr.com
http://about.me/chefjoshkatt
Cheers,
To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/
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